ASSIGNMENT TWO - THINKING OF YOU

Project Brief

Create a range of cards for sentiments or events that are worthy of a greetings card, but are currently not catered for by card manufactures. The cards could be linked to other calendar events, obscure Saints days, sporting calendars or any other happening that is worth celebrating or commiserating. You may wish to explore some of life’s other landmarks that currently don’t feature in greetings cards, like getting your first grey hairs, being released from prison or any other personal landmark someone might want to share.

Analysis of the brief

I'm tasked with designing three greeting cards that are not currently available by card manufactures. I will need to design the cover of the card with a message inside. The dimensions of the card can be based on the envelope size. I can incorporate designs such as pop-ups.

Keywords

• Obscure days

• Calendar events

• Sporting

• Saints days

• Anything worth celebrating

• Anything worth commiserating

• Landmarks in life

Design problems

The design problems that I envisage are designing ideas that may already be catered for. This will involve extensive research to make sure I don't design a greeting card already manufactured. The brief is open and is not targeted at a specific audience; with this in mind the design needs to be eye-catching and stand out as these cards are not part of a specific category of greeting card.

Research

The process of research involves systematically examining various aspects of design throughout a project as explained by (Sherin, 2017). A clear understanding of the problem and audience is the only way to avoid reusing existing ideas.

For greeting card research, I watched a video on Skillshare (Become A Greeting Card Designer, 2022). This video was very helpful in exploring the current trends in greeting cards. I looked online at the biggest online card manufactures: Paper Source in the USA, Hallmark in the USA, Moon Pig in the UK. I took the theme of birthday because these cards are the most popular cards on the market. I wanted to look more closely at the current trends in the greeting card industry. For the online cards I took the most popular cards trending or most popular in the birthday category for each company. For each card I looked at the media used to create the card, the imagery, the colour palette, text and tone and embellishments.

Click on the image below for more detailed information.

I found from this research that bright strong colours dominate this theme, all cards were eye-catching. Nearly all the cards sampled had handwritten fonts or sans serif fonts and had some kind of embellishments such as foiling, glitter or metallics. Photography wasn't used very much, but illustrations and hand painted designs were popular. Fun, humour and puns featured in nearly all the cards.

My research took me to the shops that sell greeting cards. I listed all the categories of greeting card that I could find, some were only seasonal such as Valentine's Day, Halloween and Mother's Day for example.

Click in the image below for more details.

"Creative thinking tools, personal influences and source material enable a designer to respond to a brief and generate creative solutions". (Ambrose, Harris and Ball, 2019)

These cards also were colourful, had embellishments on (some with badges attached aimed at younger children) one card was left just black and white so the recipient could colour in the card (Get well soon card), cards made of handmade paper and one card that could be planted after use (environmentally friendly).

Brainstorming

In my sketchbook I started to brainstorm all the different ideas that came into my mind (see Fig.16)

Fig.16 Brainstorming (2022)

The act of formstorming is an act of visual thinking used by designers to solve basic design problems (Lupton and Phillips, 2015). The brainstorming brought up many strange and random ideas and concepts, I checked on a website called (Days of the year, 2017) to see if these days actually existed. Many of them did exist but were not featured on greeting cards by greeting card manufactures.

Some themes were coming out strongly in the brainstorm. I decided to break down the themes further. South Africa Heritage Day, Mandela Day, use of iconic South African products in cards.

Fig. 17 Brainstorming2 (2022)

Greeting card 1- Lucky Star Pop Art

For the first greeting card I was inspired by the iconic food products and the first thing that came into my mind was the post-modernism era Pop Art with Andy Warhol and the Campbell soup cans.

The Lucky Star brand of fish is iconic in South Africa and being inspired by the Pop Art movement, I thought this could be a very quirky idea for a greetings card. It is colourful and instantly recognisable, can be humorous and fun! I was thinking of fish idioms:

"You're off the hook"

"You're a different kettle of fish"

"There are plenty of other fish in the sea"

"A drop in the ocean"

There are many elements I could play around with, stars, fish and the waves.

Throughout history and today, designers have drawn inspiration from diverse and eclectic sources. It is such influences that guide the development of a design (Ambrose, Harris and Ball, 2019).

Fig.18 Pilchards in tomato sauce (2022)

Pop Art

The Pop Art movement developed in London and New York between 1954-1977. The modern world was expressed in Pop Art and wanted to be popular and not "high art". The movement would to appeal to everyone. Pop Art is full of humour and at times ironic. The artists such as Andy Warhol would use anything like cartoons, actors, food, clothing, illustrations and advertising in their works (Eimert, 2016).

See the video below for more information about Pop Art.

(National Galleries, 2018)

I looked for more examples of Pop Art from artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake and Eduardo Paolozzi.

Please click on the image below.

Both Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton designed album covers for the Beatles, demonstrating the connection between graphic design and rock music. Sergeant Pepper's lonely hearts club band is one of the most influential rock albums ever recorded, and Blake's cover of the album features the band in psychedelically colored uniforms.

(Eskilson, 2007)

Fig.22 Peter Blake – STG Pepper 2007 (2019)

Visualising my idea

I put together a moodboard of South African Pop Art for more inspiration.

Click image below for more detail.

Fig.33 Pop Art moodboard (2022)

I went to my sketchbook to do some rough working out for the colours I wanted for the background. I cut strips of coloured paper and used a star stamp cutter to create the stars and then placed them on all the different coloured paper to see which colours I wanted for the background of the design.

Fig. 34 Coloured stars (2022)

I found that the colours I wanted for the background were, yellow, orange, green and blue.

I took the label off the can of Lucky Star and sketched the label. I used post-it notes for the background colours that I wanted for the four versions of the tin.

For the greetings card I didn't want the tin to look too perfect. I tried to draw straight onto the computer using Adobe Illustrator and a Wacom tablet.

The hand drawn version was looking too rough, so I decided to add the text with the font Futura standard condensed and a star. It was looking better but I still wasn't happy with it. I was looking for a more painted effect.

I also had the designs in a flat sketched version, I decided that having the sketches of the label design on the tin would make the designs look better.

Fig.35 Lucky Star Sketches (2022)

Fig. 36 Hand drawing sketch in pencil (2022) Fig.37 On Adobe Illustrator using a Wacom tablet (2022) Fig.38 Using Adobe Illustrator text and star shape (2022)

I went back to my sketchbook to see how a tin would look on the card and work out what message I wanted inside the card and the envelope.

Fig.39 Lucky Star tin sketches (2022)

I was happier with the tin version of the design and went into Adobe Illustrator to make the pattern to go inside the envelope. I came up with this below.

Fig. 40 Screenshot Stars (2022)

Fig.41 Star pattern to go inside the envelope (2022)

The drawing was not working with the idea I had in mind. I took a photo of the tin and put the photo into Adobe Illustrator, from there I used image trace of 16 colours. I was pleased with this as it gave the painted effect I was looking for, I removed some of the details like the flavour as I wanted the tin to look simple.

Fig.42 Lucky Star tin (2022) Fig.43 Image trace 16 colour's with Adobe Illustrator (2022)

I then moved to Photoshop and used my Adobe Illustrator image to change the hue and saturation to get these different colours.

Fig.44 Different coloured tins (2022)

I used the different colour backgrounds of yellow, green, blue and orange and layered the images on top. I then added drop shadows to make it more realistic.

Fig.45 Lucky Star front cover (2022)

Critique

I showed my work to an audience to critique with the following rationale.

To design a greetings card that is not currently available by greeting card manufactures. In this design I wanted to incorporate a South African famous brand into Pop Art. The design had to stand out and be colourful. The target audience is for a dating couple with the inside of the card saying "You're a different kettle of fish".

The response was that it was so different and that the brand is so well known and iconic (in South Africa) that there is no need for any writing on the front of the card. They liked the star in the middle and the different colours used for each tin. The card is fun and humorous. The only thing that they wanted changed was the drop shadow as it might look better if the tins looked simpler.

They loved that the envelope was plain on the outside because when you open the card you get this bright surprise inside. The message inside was humorous.

Mock-ups

I took the critique into consideration and removed the drop shadows from the design. I created these mock ups for the final design.

Fig.46 Front of the greeting card final (2022)

Fig.47 Inside of the greeting card and envelope (2022)

Greeting card 2 - Giraffe, Stand Tall

I wanted to explore the giraffe theme. Giraffes are my favourite wild animal and I love to watch these majestic and elegant animals move in the bush (safari).

Continuing from my initial brain storming (Fig. 16) I explored the theme further with another brainstorm. See below.

Fig.48 Brainstorm giraffe (2022)

From this brainstorming session I wanted to play with the concept of the long neck and incorporate this into a concertina fold greeting card. From my research on greeting cards (See research section) many of the cards had embellishments on them. This was a good opportunity to be more creative with this greeting card and make the card by hand.

I created some moodboards to see what inspiration I could get from the items I had around the house.

Click on the image below for more detail.

Fig.49 Giraffe mood board (2022)

Many of the items have colourful patterns or are made from beads. For this card I want to concentrate more on the embellishments than the detail as I feel I have done this already in the first greeting card where the theme was Pop Art. I want to pare back the detail and apply Occram's Razor theory.

I put together photos from my trips to the bush over the years to see if there was a particular shape or stance that I might want to use for the card.

For more detail click on the image.

Fig.50 Giraffe photos (2022)

Visualising my idea

In my sketchbook I was experimenting with the layout and how the giraffe would look on a concertina fold greeting card. The extended neck had to be on at lest two panels of the card. I tried with different colours for the giraffe, I decided that yellow and brown was a better combination than brown and orange.

Fig.51 Giraffe card layout (2022)

I started to explore giraffe patterns from my collection of papers that had giraffe patterns on. I need to draw my patterns closer together.

Fig.52 Giraffe patterns (2022)

I then started to experiment with embellishments for the giraffe neck and found fabric with the giraffe print on. This was quirky and fun and gave the giraffe neck a contrasted look from the hand drawn giraffe head. Overall there was a physical texture which made the greetings card different.

Fig.53 Fabric giraffe embellishments (2022)

I went to more extremes with adhesive felt, this really gave a different raised look and texture, however, it was really difficult to cut the giraffe patterns into a defined shape. Although it was fun, it's just not practical to post and stay together with all the different folds on the card.

Fig.54 Felt giraffe embellishments (2022)

For the glitter embellishments, this was also a challenge to get right. I got the idea from an old gift box that was decorated with glitter. I tried to apply glue and place the loose glitter on top, but the edges were not defined enough. I then decided to make my own glitter paper by painting a brown background adding glue then adding the loose glitter afterwards. This was better as I could cut out the shapes and they were more defined, however, when I tried to stick them on the giraffe the corners would start peeling. In a last attempt with glitter everywhere I tried double-sided tape, I covered one side with loose glitter, cut out the desired shape for the giraffe neck then stuck this to the design. This worked perfectly but trying to peel off the double-sided tape was a tedious and frustrating process, that took hours.

Fig.55 Glitter giraffe embellishments (2022)

I was happy with how the glitter looked on the giraffe neck. My next phase was to decide which greeting I was going to use and where it will be placed on the greeting card. I thought of two that would work well on this greeting card "Stand tall" or "Reach for new heights" I preferred the "Stand Tall" as this works with the giraffe's long neck, I could play on the words and make the word "tall", long and thin.

Fig.56 Giraffe greetings layout (2022)

On the front of the card I could also play on the words by using "Be Bold" and making the word "bold" thicker. I then tried to see which colours would work better. I decided that yellow would be more vibrant as the glitter on the brown patterns could make the whole card look dark. I want the card to be humorous, fun and positive. The text would also be hand written to go with the whole theme of the card being made by hand.

Fig.57 Giraffe greetings layout2 (2022)

Mock-ups

Fig.58 Giraffe card mock-ups (2022)

Critique

I showed my work for an audience to critique with the following rationale:

To design a greetings card that is not currently available by greeting card manufactures. In this design I wanted to incorporate a concertina fold with an exaggerated long giraffe neck, embellished with glitter and a greeting that read, "be bold, stand tall" with the play on the words relating to the look of the giraffe. The design had to stand out and be colourful and100% handmade. The target audience for this greeting card is anyone that loves giraffes or needs a pun for encouragement.

The response was they liked the giraffe theme with the envelope. On the front of the card they were curious with what was next and intrigued as the neck can look like a path on the cover. They liked the shiny pattern. Once the card was opened they were surprised at how the card opened, they liked the happy feeling, the giraffe was cute and the message was positive and encouraging. They also liked that the word "tall" was tall.

They would add a sticker to the outside of the envelope where you open and add glitter to the giraffe's ears as the head has no embellishments on it.

Final design

My final design:

Press the arrow to view slideshow.

Fig.59 Final Giraffe "Stand Tall" (2022)

Greeting Card 3 - Pet well soon

For this greeting card I wanted to explore "Get well soon", for pets. There were cards on the market for the death of a pet or new pet owners but nothing that I could find for pets that are recovering from an operation such as a spay/neuter. Instead of "Get well soon" I thought "Pet well soon" would be humorous. The aim of this greeting card is for pet owners that have their pets go in for routine operations, not for operations where the outcome is unknown or if the pet was involved in an accident, which could be inappropriate.

I brainstormed further ideas following on from (Fig.16)

Fig.60 Pet well soon brainstorm (2022)

For this greeting card I wanted to practice and draw digitally using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. I gathered some ideas on my moodboard, exploring cartoon cats, photos of my cat "Simba", paw prints and puns.

For a close view press the image below.

Fig.61 Cat Mood board (2022)

Visualising my idea

In my sketchbook I started to draw thumbnails on how I was going to set up my drawing and the ideas I wanted to put in.

Fig.62 Thumbnail sketches (2022)

The idea was inspired by my cat Simba. He often thinks he's a human. I thought I could put this into a funny cartoon illustration. The cat will be in a human bed, with a picture above the bed of a fish. On the cat's bedside table there will be a lamp with paw print decorations on the edge, then a book on the bed-side table called "Catmopolitan" that reads "Puurfect you", the bottom of the bed-side table will have the mouse house, with a mouse outside his house. The handles on the bed-side table will have paw handles. The duvet covers will have fish on them. Under the bed there will be a ball of wall. I will draw this using a Wacom tablet to become more comfortable drawing on the computer.

Fig.63 Thumbnail sketches 2 (2022)

For the inside of the card it will read "Wishing for a speedy recovery for your fur baby. Pet well soon" There will be paw prints on the corners of the card in a watermarked grey.

Fig.64 Inside greeting card (2022)

The computer version for the inside of the card below.

Fig.65 Computer version of greeting (2022)

I used Adobe Illustrator to create patterns that will go inside the envelope. This was hand drawn using a Wacom tablet. The pattern was then repeated for this effect.

Fig.66 Hand drawn paw prints on computer (2022)

I then moved to Adobe Photoshop to see which colours would work best.

Fig.67 Set of coloured paw prints (2022)

I liked all of them but to go with the colour theme of the card, I choose green and orange because of the orange cat and the green duvet covers.

I went back to Adobe Illustrator to draw the basic's of the cat's bedroom.

Fig. 68 Adobe Illustrator sketch of card (2022)

I then went back to Adobe Photoshop to add the colour and effects. I used different brushes, burn tool and the clone stamp tool. The drawing is not 100% perfect, but wanted it to look individual.

Fig.69 Adobe Photoshop illustration of card (2022)

Mock-ups

I created these mock-ups of the final greetings card for "Pet well soon".

Fig.70 Mock-up of envelope and inside of the card (2022)

Fig.71 Mock-up of front of the card (2022)

Critique

I showed my work to an audience to critique with the following rationale:

To design a greetings card that is not currently available by greeting card manufactures. In this design I wanted to design a card that was illustrated like a cartoon and hand drawn straight on the computer using a Wacom tablet. The design has to stand out and be colourful but be humourous and funny. The cat is in a human setting but surrounded by all things that cats like to do. The target audience for this greeting card is for pet owners and their pet undergoing surgery to be spayed/neutered or any other routine surgery where the pet is expected to recover.

The response was positive, they liked the hand drawn cartoon illustration and that the cat was surrounded by things that were "cat" but in a human environment.

Reflection

I found this assignment both enjoyable and challenging. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to research and find a greeting card that is not currently catered for by card manufactures. When brainstorming ideas I found that my ideas went to extremes like hippo day, which I found out later is an actual day to the usual like Teachers' Day or Grandparents' Day.

Greeting card 1- Lucky Star Pop Art

My first greetings card "Lucky Star Pop Art" was such fun to create! I enjoy working with bold colours that stand out and applying different effects to them in Photoshop. This greeting card started off with some challenges with trying to draw the Lucky Star tin directly onto the computer using the Wacom tablet and it was just not working the way I envisaged in my mind. I was getting quite frustrated with my drawing ability which I need to get into the habit of practicing again, but at the same time trying not to be too hard on myself as drawing straight onto a computer is different to drawing in a sketchbook.

My Adobe skills seem to get better the more I experiment and for this card I experimented with the hue and saturation to get the different colour effects on the Lucky Star tins. However, I still have quite a way to go to do more with Photoshop.

My intention was not to design a greeting card for new couples, but the Lucky Star theme lends itself to the fish idioms "You're a different kettle of fish" seemed to fit the card theme perfectly. I really enjoyed researching the different Pop Art artists from the well known Andy Warhol to others such as Eduardo Paolozzi with one of my favourite pieces of work of the mosaics on the London underground station. I understand the importance of undertaking research for projects, as it gives inspiration of different ideas that you would have never thought of if research was not carried out.

I liked that I could merge the Pop Art with an iconic brand in South Africa.

Greeting card 2 - Giraffe, Stand Tall

For my second greetings card "Giraffe stand tall" was all handmade. During my research of greeting cards I came across many cards that were handmade. I thought this would be a good opportunity to develop my sketch book further and to use different media.

Out of all the cards this was the most challenging. I liked the concept of using a concertina fold to showcase the long neck of the giraffe and the greeting "Stand Tall". I could use this as a card for positive encouragement or for anyone like like me that is slightly obsessed with giraffes.

I feel if I reproduced this card in the UK it would have been easier to source the materials needed to make the card look clean and professional. However, in South Africa where materials are limited or imported and very expensive, I had to adjust to making my own glitter tape, I do feel that I did the best I could with what I had.

I'm glad that I made my card by hand, but will probably think twice about using glitter embellishments again. The process of making the giraffe patterns in glitter took hours of work which was such a tedious and frustrating process that I nearly shelved the idea completely. I wanted to have a card that had embellishments on it as this is a popular addition on cards made by manufactures.

If I was to make this card again I would do the design on the computer and research foiling at the printing stage.

Greeting Card 3 - Pet well soon

In the last greeting card I explored the "Get well soon" segment of the greeting card theme. I noticed that there were cards that catered for new pets or death of a pet but I saw a gap that didn't cater for pets that underwent routine operations such as being spayed or neutered. I thought of the greeting "Pet well soon".

I thought that this could be a good time to come back to drawing on the Wacom tablet and create a cartoon greetings card that was funny. This card did not involve much research and I decided to just try and see what happened. I started in Adobe Illustrator to get the outline of the illustrations of the card then I transferred to Photoshop to add the details. I feel more proficient in Photoshop than Illustrator at the moment.

I added all the details as I went along, this illustration took hours to complete, but all the time my confidence was growing more, especially after the Lucky Star tin fail! I enjoyed making the human environment more "cat". The more I was editing the illustration the more ideas were coming to mind, such as the cat dreaming about the mouse being food. I used more of the Photoshop tools like the clone stamp tool, burn tool and the different brushes to get the effects I wanted.

I'm glad I preserved with drawing straight onto the computer, although the drawing is not 100% to scale and perspective especially with the bed. I do like that the drawing is quirky, as it adds to the humour of the greetings card.

Overall I really enjoyed this assignment, it was playful, fun and challenging. In order to do the designs I really want to do I need to keep going with online tutorial's for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I feel these computer skills will help with future projects and assignments.

References

Illustrations bibliography Thinking of you assignment 2.pdf

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